Best MMA Betting Sites in New Jersey - Jul 2024

High-profile figures within the MMA community regularly claim that it’s the fastest-growing sport in the world. That’s tough to prove. But the rapid increase in MMA betting opportunities at US sportsbooks certainly goes a long way to support the assertion. 

Events like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) are hugely exciting to watch. But, like most sports, it’s even more exhilarating to bet on MMA. However, before you do that, you’ll need to understand how things work.

In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know, starting with a rundown of the best MMA betting sites in New Jersey.

Best MMA Betting Sites for 2024

There are more than two dozen legal sportsbooks to choose from in NJ. Our research shows that all of these sites offer betting on MMA events. As such, it’s incredibly easy to place bets online. 

We’ve compiled this list of the best MMA betting sites to help you get started. This means we've taken our overall rankings and then looked specifically at what's on offer for MMA wagering.

What Does a Good MMA Betting Site Offer?

Good MMA betting sites in New Jersey are safe to use and provide plenty of betting opportunities. In addition, they offer simple and fast payments, plus regular bonuses and promotions. Let's explore these in more detail.

MMA Betting Opportunities

When betting on MMA, sites that offer plenty of events at competitive odds give us the most opportunities to find value. Good sportsbooks also feature a variety of markets for each fight, with matchups from all of the major MMA organizations. After all, there’s much more to the sport than the main UFC cards. 

Safety and Security

All legal NJ sportsbooks must be licensed by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Look for the logo on the site before you register. What’s more, the best MMA betting sites in the Garden State take extra steps to ensure your safety, including the use of encryption.

Bonuses and Promotions

Sports betting promos are a great way to increase the funds in your account and reduce your risk. When joining an MMA betting site in New Jersey, there’s always a welcome bonus to claim, with regular offers for loyal bettors too. These include odds boosts, deposit matches and even friend referral bonuses. 

Payment Options

Before you bet on MMA, you’ll need funds in your account. Making a deposit should be straightforward, with a choice of popular and convenient payment methods available. The withdrawal process should also be fast but secure, with minimal fuss preventing you from picking up your winnings.

What Makes a Good MMA Betting Product?

Of course, much more goes into creating a superior betting service than we’ve discussed so far. The very best MMA betting sites aren’t just safe and convenient. They’re full of little touches to make the experience as user-friendly as possible, as well as statement features.

These include cash out, custom bet builders and live streams. Native mobile apps and live betting markets allow you to bet any time, any place. While in-game stats offer additional insight into the action from the cage.

Fight Stats and Insights for Betting

The top MMA betting sites supply statistics ahead of each event, providing fighter records and other useful information to help you make predictions. Stats are an important weapon for any sports bettor, providing more tools with which to achieve the right outcome.

Common MMA stats include the fighter's win and loss history, including the method of victory and in which round the fight ended. Statistics like height and reach are also very useful, as are significant strikes and attempted takedowns.

For example, imagine the main event is between two fighters who both have multiple first-round finishes. In that case, betting on under 1.5 rounds could be a good idea. 

Cashing Out MMA Bets

The cashout feature is a crucial part of modern online betting, allowing you to end your wager before the event is over. Whether your bet is winning or losing, it’s possible to wrap things up early. You could bank some guaranteed winnings, or simply take what’s left of your stake on a losing bet – all while the fight is ongoing. 

For example, your fighter looks like they’ve won three out of five rounds so far. However, you’re worried they might be finished after gassing out. In this situation, cashing out early is a great way to ensure you lock in some profits. It no longer matters what happens later.  

Partial cash out is also available at some sportsbooks, giving you complete control over the bet. This allows you to take some of the winnings, while leaving the rest of your stake to ride.

Watching the UFC Live

Although the best online betting sites offer plenty of live streams, none in New Jersey are able to show MMA at the moment. Hopefully this will change in future, since many online sportsbooks around the world can and do show MMA fights through their websites and apps.

Although MMA live streams aren’t yet available at online betting sites in NJ, you can always watch the UFC in-person. The best retail sportsbook in the Garden State for MMA is Caesars in Atlantic City.

Live MMA Betting at New Jersey Sportsbooks

When the fighters are locked in the cage, you’re still able to place bets on the action. Live betting allows you to view instantly updated odds, even when the fight is in progress. 

This lets you take advantage of any price movements caused by the action. For example, a fighter’s odds to win will lengthen if they’re knocked down. If they have a history of coming back to win, it could be a good betting opportunity. 

DraftKings is well known for live MMA betting, with a wide range of betting markets available while fights are ongoing. It’s the official sportsbook of the UFC, but you’ll also find live betting odds for other MMA events too. 

Common MMA Betting Bonuses

Sportsbook Bonuses and promotions help sportsbooks to attract new bettors, and the best MMA betting sites have awesome rewards on offer. We’ll discuss the most popular examples shortly. But first, it’s worth reminding you to always check the terms and conditions before claiming a bonus.

Depositing to Unlock Rewards

Matched deposit offers are perhaps the easiest and most common betting bonuses to claim. These offer a reward whenever you make a qualifying deposit, the value of which is determined by the amount of money involved.

For example, let’s say the betting site offers a 100% deposit match for new customers. If you sign up and deposit $200, you’d have $400 in your account. 

MMA Betting Insurance

This simple but effective offer helps reduce the risk when placing a bet on MMA fights. Insurance is often given as a welcome bonus, but many sites offer this type of promotion to regular customers too.

The idea is simple. Place a qualifying bet and, if it wins, you keep the returns as usual. However, if the wager loses, your stake will be refunded in the form of bonus bets.

Bet and Get on MMA

This offer from the best MMA betting sites rewards you for placing any specified bet. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. Your account will be credited with a bonus bet as soon as the qualifying wager is settled.

For example, the promotion might be “get $100 in bonus bets when you bet $5”. In that case, all you have to do is place a $5 wager on any of the designated sports to receive your bonus funds.

Boost Your MMA Bet Win

Similar to the Bet and Get concept, some offers reward you with a significant amount of bonus bets if your qualifying wager wins. 

FanDuel enjoys this type of promotion and has used it as a welcome bonus at times. One such example required new registrants to deposit at least $10, before wagering a minimum of $5. If that bet came in, the reward would be an impressive $150 worth of bonus bets.

Major MMA Betting Events

When most people think of MMA, they imagine the UFC, but it wasn’t the first competition to mix martial arts styles. However, the organization is certainly responsible for popularizing the sport around the world. 

Today, there are multiple organizations offering high-level MMA fights, and it’s possible to wager on all of them.

The History of the UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championship was founded in 1993, aiming to organize no-holds barred fights with very few rules. The early events mostly saw competitors with single styles of fighting. They were largely dominated by Royce Gracie, one of the very first practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). 

Due to pressure from sports regulators and TV networks, organizers would later set rules. These were mostly for safety, such as eliminating low blows and kicks to grounded opponents. Over time, the sport grew, establishing itself in the mainstream thanks to stars such as Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor. 

As the sport’s profile grew, so did the skills of its competitors. Modern MMA fighters now blend a mixture of styles together, excelling in both striking and grappling, as complete martial artists. 

What are the Major MMA Events?

Here are some of the biggest MMA events to watch and wager on.

• UFC PPV - The UFC holds regular pay-per-view (PPV) events, and each one is numbered. These are normally headlined by the biggest stars and typically feature at least one championship match.
• UFC Fight Night - Fight nights are lesser UFC events, featuring lower-ranked fighters. These events are still fun to watch, but don’t attract as much attention due to the lack of star power. They’re often held in the UFC Apex Arena. 
• PFL - The Professional Fighters League is one of the main competitors to the UFC. It was founded in 2017 and aims to hold consistent fights in a league format. 
• Bellator - This organization, founded in 2008, remains one of the largest MMA promotions. While Bellator has now been acquired by PFL, it will continue to hold events for the foreseeable future.

MMA Betting Strategies

This is an unpredictable sport, and most fighters have a mixed record. This erratic nature of events is both a blessing and a curse when trying to place MMA bets. It’s never easy to make accurate predictions, but it can lead to some big priced upsets.

Still, it’s possible to improve your chances by sticking to these solid strategies for betting on MMA.

Avoid the Heavy Favorites

Occasionally, MMA produces dominant champions such as Jon Jones or Khabib Nurmagomedov. But for the most part, these are very rare. Titles change hands often, and few fighters remain unbeaten long into their careers.

Sometimes, a loss comes by way of a lucky and unexpected punch, and underdogs will often upset the odds. Generally, you’ll want to avoid heavy favorites. Instead, focus on finding value in underdog bets. While you may lose more often, the payouts will be far greater. Your expected value and profits should be higher as a result.

Styles Make Fights

In Mixed Martial Arts, most fighters tend to have a specific skill or style in which they excel. Modern MMA fighters combine styles better than ever before, but there are still people who are particularly strong in certain areas. For example, former kickboxing champion Alex Pereira has extremely strong striking ability, but is less adept on the ground. 

Use the knowledge of a fighter’s style to make predictions on how they’ll perform against their opponent. Look at how their skills match up and whether one fighter’s talents can be used to exploit the weaknesses of the other. 

Common Mixed Martial Arts Bet Types

There are lots of different ways to bet on MMA. Most sportsbooks in New Jersey give you at least three different betting markets to choose from with each fight. 

This includes the fight result itself, as well as the method of victory and the over/under on the number of rounds. However, the exact number of markets available depends entirely on the size of the event and the organization. 

Typically, UFC events have more lines available. The bigger the event, the more options you’ll have to choose from. With a championship fight, for instance, you tend to see much more variety in the betting markets. 

Let's have a look at some of the classic markets now.

MMA Moneylines

Also known as the “fight result”, this is simply a prediction of who’ll have their hand raised at the end of the bout. It doesn’t matter how it finishes, you’ll win your bet as long as you pick the correct fighter. 

The best MMA betting sites always offer this market. But, as a general rule, DraftKings usually features the most generous moneyline odds for UFC and PFL fights.

How the Fight Will End - Method of Victory

This is sometimes called “method of victory”, or similar. Either way, you just need to guess how the fight will end. MMA bouts are decided in one of three different ways. 

Fighters attempt to stop their opponent with strikes, resulting in a knockout (KO) or technical knockout (TKO). It’s also possible for fights to end in a submission, with chokes or joint locks making an opponent tap or pass out. Otherwise, if the fight goes the distance with no clear winner, it’ll be decided by the judges.

Total Number of Rounds (Over/Under)

A standard MMA fight is scheduled for three rounds, though championship fights and main events last up to five rounds. This betting market allows you to predict whether the total number of rounds will be higher or lower than the bookmaker’s line.

So, if you think the fight will finish early and the line is 2.5, you’ll want to bet the “under” option. Conversely, you’d opt for “over” if you expect the contest to enter the third round or beyond.

MMA Parlay Betting

Parlays are one of the most exciting ways to bet, allowing you to combine multiple bets into a single wager. The best MMA betting sites offer parlay betting, and it’s possible to add every fight on the card to your betslip. 

The more selections you include, the higher the odds will be. However, you should remember that every selection must win for your parlay to be successful. Be responsible when choosing your bets and don’t add fights unless you’ve done your research. 

Conclusion

Mixed Martial Arts, and particularly the UFC, continues to grow in popularity. What’s more, it’s easier than ever to bet on the action, thanks to legal sportsbooks in New Jersey offering generous odds, bonuses and special features.

The best MMA betting sites offer multiple markets on major MMA events, with UFC and PFL the most popular competitions covered. Join one of our recommended sportsbooks today for the best possible experience when betting on MMA fights. 

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